Principal's Reflection

Dear families,

The Easter break is fast approaching and the past five weeks have passed by at a frenetic pace! After such a positive start, momentum has continued to build across many areas of the College.

School Council

Our school council has been formed earlier this week and although already announced, I want to acknowledge the team here again:

-         Liz Lazarus (President - parent)

-         Adeel Ahmad (Vice-President - parent)

-         Carl Marchant (Treasurer - parent)

-         Meaghan King (parent)

-         Charmaine Russell (parent)

-         Julia Gaitan-Majkic (community)

-         Casey Aldridge (community)

-         Josh Quinlan (Year 8 student)

-         Jarrah Farmer (Year 12 student)

-         Casey Sperling (DET)

-         Brenda Pavichievac (DET)

-         Nathan Guthridge (DET)

With council formed we can both continue previous efforts and begin new work. Our College website will be updated in the coming days with contact details for council members and one of the early items Liz has already attended to is to ensure council can be accessed and correspondence incoming can be addressed in a timely manner. We hope families will feel well supported and represented by the 2026 council.

An icy winter

Our 2026 production has been announced with the cast for Frozen Junior now appointed and already rehearsing. We are looking to expand our delivery in the performing arts and I am currently exploring avenues to access both funding and facilities to continue our development in this space. The cast are incredible and we are in for a real treat later in the year! 

Staff development

In the midst of industrial action, tensions can be high and the work of our teachers can be viewed through various lenses. I thought it important to share that here at Altona College, our team have been working relentlessly to pursue excellence despite the distraction of impending strike action. Although these times can be divisive, I am pleased to report that our culture remains strong and our staff have willingly and passionately engaged in the following learning over recent weeks, for the benefit of your children.

1. Our primary team are deeply immersed in the development of a refined approach to mathematics instruction. Our strategic plan highlights a need to improve our numeracy outcomes and the team have responded quickly. Over the coming weeks and months, ask your children if they have noticed change and pay attention to their attitudes and progress in mathematics. I have already heard pleasing commentary from parents who noticed their children looking forward to numeracy and even daring to suggest they enjoy it!
2. Our secondary team have been delving deeper into cognitive science and paying particular attention to the practices most likely to maintain attention, focus and regulation, often considered key ingredients for active engagement in learning. Strategies including the use of mini-whiteboards, timed pair-share routines and various other student response systems are being used the ensure classrooms become more active, less disruptive and stimulate more thinking, more often. Your children should come home tired, but comfortable knowing that they are being challenged to pay attention and think hard!
3. Our senior secondary staff have undertaken deep exploration of the intricacies of VCE assessment. Analysing examiners reports, moderation processes and strategies that are most likely to help students achieve scores that best reflect their ability and needs. We have also shared some of this knowledge with students, helping them develop a deeper understanding of how an ATAR is built, not earned! Many students have reported that they didn’t realise the scores that are actually within their reach with the right motivation, dedication and planning. We will continue this work with the aim of strengthening motivation, interest, dedication and ultimately, outcomes.
4. Wellbeing and engagement – while our teachers are working in all the above-mentioned areas and more, our senior leadership are also undertaking a thorough review of our current wellbeing and engagement strategy. In doing so, we have identified some exceptional strengths relative to current system expectations and delivery. Despite this, we are also interested in streamlining our monitoring, communication and intervention strategies to ensure our best practices are scaled and amplified for more families, more often.

Improvement is always a continuous pursuit and the most valuable resource a school principal can deploy to affect student outcomes is people. Our teachers and support staff are striving to be the best practitioners they can be, our leaders are actively pursuing the best ways to support them, and our students can only benefit from any progress that is made in this endeavour.

The big finish

The final weeks of term are filled with events. Athletics day, Open evening, Parent conferences and celebrations. These events have become both critical to our improvement journey, but also to our culture. We recognise that fatigue always plays a role in emotional regulation, stamina and endurance late in the term, but we sincerely hope that all students and families can remain on track, participate actively and then enjoy a well-earned rest over the break.

I look forward to sharing the outcomes of these events in the next newsletter and wish everyone a safe and joyous end to term 1.

Warmest regards,

,

Nathan Guthridge

Principal 

Altona College